She's in the political spotlight for her role in the scandal surrounding former White House staff secretary Rob Porter.

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By
Sam Dangremond and Caroline Hallemann

White House Communications Director Hope Hicks has come under scrutiny for her role in the scandal surrounding Rob Porter, as well as by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

It has been reported that Hicks was romantically involved with Porter, whose ex-wives have made detailed statements that he abused them. Hicks reportedly helped to draft a statement of support for him that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly delivered early this week, before Porter's resignation.

Originally from Greenwich, Connecticut, Hicks, 29, has worked with President Trump since he was a candidate. The Trump campaign was her first political job.

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For months, Hope Hicks has been surprisingly good at keeping her name out of the press. The current White House Communications Director has been an aide to President Trump since his campaign, but gives few interviews and remains firmly behind the scenes.

That's all changing thanks to a scandal surrounding White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter, who resigned this week.

Hicks plays an unusually visible role in the Porter debacle.

This week, White House staff secretary Rob Porter resigned after two of his ex-wives detailed physical abuse they suffered. Porter has denied the allegations and was initially supported by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. Hicks had a hand in drafting a statement from Kelly, despite the fact that Hicks herself is allegedly romantically involved with Porter. The tide turned against Porter when it was revealed that White House officials have known for months about the allegations and that a year into the administration, Porter still does not have security clearance.

Hicks and Trump with reporters aboard Air Force One while departing Manila on November 14, 2017.

Hicks is also caught up in Mueller's Russia investigation.

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As part of an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Special Counsel Robert Mueller appears to be probing further into a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between campaign officials, including Donald Trump Jr., and several Russians with ties to the government, including lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

When news of that meeting got out in July 2017, the President himself worked with Hicks, his son Donald Jr. and other advisors to draft a statement, ultimately issued in Donald Jr.'s name, which characterized the campaign meeting as "a short introductory meeting" that was "primarily" about Russian adoption.

Mark Corallo, a former spokesperson for President Trump's legal team who resigned last July, reportedly told Mueller "about a previously undisclosed conference call with Mr. Trump and Hope Hicks," in which Hicks said emails written by Donald Trump Jr. about the meeting "will never get out," the New York Timesreported on January 31.

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That comment reportedly "left Mr. Corallo with concerns that Ms. Hicks could be contemplating obstructing justice," an that accusation Hicks's lawyer denies.

“As most reporters know, it’s not my practice to comment in response to questions from the media. But this warrants a response,” lawyer Robert P. Trout said in a statement. “She never said that. And the idea that Hope Hicks ever suggested that emails or other documents would be concealed or destroyed is completely false.”

Before this month, Hicks largely remained an enigma.

Though she's a gatekeeper to members of the press who want access to Trump, she's made very few public appearances herself. She tends to stay behind the camera, advising her boss on press strategy. Last December, though, she made a rare public appearance at a Trump victory rally in Mobile, Alabama when the president-elect invited the then-28-year-old onstage.

She grew up in the tony New York City suburb of Greenwich, Connecticut.

Hicks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, in December

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Hicks swam at Greenwich Country Club, was co­-captain of the lacrosse team at Greenwich High School, and played lacrosse all four years in college.

And did some acting.

Hicks had a cameo on Guiding Light.

She comes from a family well-versed in politics and public relations.

Her parents met while they were working on Capitol Hill—her mother as legislative aide for a democrat from Tennessee and her father as chief of staff for a republican congressman from Connecticut. Her father, Paul Hicks III, served as CEO of the Americas for Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide and as executive vice president of communications and public affairs for the National Football League before starting his current job as managing director of the Glover Park Group. Her late grandfather, Paul Hicks, was in charge of public relations for Texaco.

Hicks at the swearing in ceremony of White House senior staff on January 22, 2017

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She spent time in Texas.

Hicks attended Southern Methodist University, where, one of her lacrosse coaches said, she was one of the only players to abide by the no-alcohol policy.

She's a team player.

Liz Holmes, one of her SMU coaches, told the Washington Post that "she is highly intelligent and brought that to the field in every game." And while "when needed, she carried the team and would score, [she] preferred to have assists."

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In 2012, two years after graduating from SMU, she began working at a public relations firm in New York.

Hiltzik Strategies, her employer at the time, worked with Ivanka Trump and the Trump Organization (its founder, Mathew Hiltzik, is known as a Democratic insider and has worked Hillary Clinton). In August 2014, the Trump organization brought her in-house. There, she handled PR for Ivanka Trump's fashion line (here's a street-style shoot she posed for) and a few Trump resorts, according to New York magazine.

Hicks steps off a Trump campaign plane in Iowa in January 2016.

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Donald Trump brought her on to lead communications for his campaign.

She was the "chief conduit to the candidate for hundreds of reporters," the Boston Globe's Matt Viser wrote for T&C. "Hope's been involved from the beginning, and she has been absolutely terrific," the then-president elect told GQ.

But until that time, she hadn't worked in politics.

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GQcalled her "a registered but dispassionate Republican since 2008 [who] had never so much as volunteered on a campaign."

While she helped Trump by taking dictation for his tweets during the campaign, you won't find her on Twitter.

Unless you count the parody account @HicksNoComment, which satirizes Hicks's lack of responsiveness.

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She is well-liked by both her bosses and reporters.

"Hope Hicks is incredible,'' onetime Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort (who himself has been indicted by Mueller on 12 felony counts including money laundering, false statements and other acts of conspiracy against the U.S.) told the Hartford Courant. "She has shown incredible depth and breadth. I would never know this [was] her first campaign. She has an incredible skill set in dealing with the media.''

Maggie Haberman, a New York Times political correspondent, echoed the sentiment: "I have always found Hope to be great to deal with," Haberman told GQ, "especially given the volume of requests she must be getting."

She's lived in a Trump apartment.

Hicks has a sister, Mary Grace, with whom she lived in Greenwich, but before she moved to Washington after the inauguration she lived in a Trump building in New York City when she was not traveling.

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Maybe she always had an inkling things would work out this way?

"If the acting thing doesn't work out," Hicks told Greenwich magazine when she was 13, "I could really see myself in politics. Who knows?"